In the off again, on again relationship between Hollywood and Voltron, it seems the film might actually be on again. A pair of awesome concept images have just surfaced attached to an upcoming pitch by Atlas Entertainment. Screenwriters Thomas Donnelly and Joshua Oppenheimer (Conan, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune) are reportedly part of the deal and if these images are any indication, it seems like they are certainly on the right track. Enough stalling, hit the jump to check out the pics. Read More »

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Teefury’s T-shirt of the day is a design titled Plastic Heroes created by Nova Scotia-based artist PowerPig. The design should bring back memories for anyone who played with action figures growing up in the 1980’s. A note from the artist:

Today’s toys are super detailed and super articulated, and that’s cool. Still, they’ll never come close to the awesome action figures we had when we were young. This design is a tribute to the toys that defined a decade, which for many of us are now abandoned, broken, or simply lost to time

Priced at only $9, the tee will only be available on Wednesday, September 1st 2010. So act fast! Hit the jump to see the full tee design in higher resolution.Read More »

Last month, it was reported that John August was in talks with Dreamworks to pen a big screen adaptation of the Monsterpocalypse board game which has been described as “part strategy, part Kaiju Big Battel, and part Rampage!, all played out with miniatures on a tabletop.” At the time, it was speculated that the involvement of Burton’s regular collaborator might mean that Tim Burton was developing the project to direct. We now have a confirmation and more information on the project.

Earlier this week, it was announced that the live-action Voltron movie was officially dead, and that the giant robot franchise would instead re-appear on television, via a Nicktoons show called Voltron Force. We’ve known about this Television show for a while; so we thought this was strange news. Turns out it wasn’t exactly true.

We’ve reported over the past couple years that Transformers had seemingly created enough giant robot movie momentum that Voltron, the Americanized edit of a 1981 Japanese animated series in which robot lions form a giant super-robot, would get a movie of its own.

That’s no longer the case which, given the quality of the Transformers films, might not be a bad thing at all. Read More »

What if Leonardo Da Vinci had designed five robot tigers that would combine to form a giant futuristic bad ass fighting machine, the design might look a lot like this t-shirt. ThinkGeek is selling the Vitruvian Voltron t-shirt, which features da Vinci-esque drawings printed all over the front (but not the back… the back is plain) of a sand-colored, 100% cotton t-shirt.

Atlas Entertainment is developing a live-action Voltron movie. Producers Charles Roven (The Dark Knight), Richard Suckle (The International) and Steve Alexander have acquired the rights to make a film based on the Japanese anime property after several years in development at various production companies.

Earlier this month we reported that Relativity had scooped up the gestating Voltron movie from 20th Century Fox (nice move) with plans to make it with a “more moderate budget, utilizing the type of cost-effective technology employed in films including 300.” Latino Review (huge Voltron fans) report tonight that Max Makowski, a general unknown, is set to direct the nostalgic robot actioner.

Makowsi is currently attached to direct the revamp of Kung Fu, due in 2009, and he’s best known for the 2005 Sundance assassins flick, One Last Dance, co-starring Harvey Keitel. Haven’t seen it, neither has LR. IMDB: 6.0. Here’s the trailer. Other films he’s attached to, in a writing or directing capacity, include Shinobi and Hawaii Five-O.

A while ago, LR memorably referred to the script by the buzzing Justin Marks (Hack/Slash, Street Fighter: Chun Li) as a “fucking masterpiece.” I’ve got it, need to read it. Logline: “a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico which follows five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth’s invaders.” I’ve been pretty amped to see this film for years, and the early word parlays that Makowski’s visual acumen will set it apart from Transformers. Playing it loose sans a $100 million budget and with a risky hotshot actually ups my anticipation.

20th Century Fox has put the big screen adaptation of Voltron in turnaround, and the project is now being set-up at Relativity Media with, according to Variety, a “more moderate budget, utilizing the type of cost-effective technology employed in films including 300.” Mark Gordon and Jordan Wynn will produce the project, which is expected to announce a director within the next week. Relativity will finance and produce the film, before shopping it around to perspective distributors. Past Relativity films have been distributed by Lionsgate, but I would expect a bigger studio to bite. The “more moderate budget” comment does worry me a bit, because a film like this can not be done right if you skimp on the effects and action sequences.

The live-action project was in development since 2004. Interest skyrocketed after the box office success of Michael Bay’s Transformers. He-Man scribe Justin Marks penned the screenplay which is being described as “a post-apocalyptic tale set in New York City and Mexico” which follows “five ragtag survivors of an alien attack band together and end up piloting the five lion-shaped robots that combine and form the massive sword-wielding Voltron that helps battle Earth’s invaders.” Marks is also working on the Green Arrow prison break film SuperMax and a new Street Fighter spin-off. LatinoReview called the script “a fucking masterpiece” and CinemaBlend called it “a well put together, well intentioned, incredibly faithful Voltron script using modern sensibilities.”

I still haven’t read the screenplay (boy, if only I had more time, all the things I could accomplish) but I’m excited at the possibility of another big robot action film. This is a genre that really hasn’t been explored, and probably wasn’t even possible to do in live-action thanks to the advances in computer generated effects, until the last five years. With Trasnformers 2 in production, Voltron moving forward, and Robotech set up at Tobey Maguire’s company, it looks like we’ll have a lot of big robot action to look forward to over the next few years.